Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday reiterated that the air pollution in the national capital was due to stubble burning and said as the farm fires were coming to an end, the air quality was improving.
The Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission vice-chairman Jasmine Shah shared a tweet with pictures showing that the air quality in Delhi was improving as the stubble burning was slowing down.
“The AQI (air quality index) levels dip to below 200 (moderate level) in most parts of Delhi, exactly as farm fires reduce to a handful in Punjab, Haryana and UP. These pictures from 10am today say it all,” Shah tweeted.
Reacting to it, Kejriwal said as soon as stubble burning began in the first week of October, the AQI started rising.
“A very strong correlation can be seen between stubble burning and the spike in air pollution in north India. As soon as stubble burning began in the first week of October, the AQI started rising. Now that burning is coming to an end, the air quality is also improving,” Kejriwal tweeted.
Meanwhile, Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party chief Manoj Tiwari said he was not against the odd-even scheme of the Aam Aadmi Party government but criticised the lack of public transport.
Speaking to IANS, Tiwari said the Delhi government should have first strengthened the public transport if it wanted to check vehicular air pollution.
“We are not against the odd-even, but we will become a supporter of it only after the government strengthens public transport,” he said.
Tiwari accused the Kejriwal government of not doing any work to check the air pollution and said despite the odd-even scheme, the AQI was still high.
“They only created troubles for the people,” Tiwari said.
Asked about MP from East Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, missing from a meeting of a parliamentary standing committee to discuss the rising levels of air pollution in the national capital, Tiwari said the Aam Aadmi Party cannot blame him for air pollution.
The meeting of the parliamentary standing committee was postponed as most participants skipped the meeting. Out of the 29 members, only four were present.
While Gambhir did not reject the claim that he was doing cricket commentary for the test match between India and Bangladesh, Tiwari said Gambhir went to Indore to attend a family function.
“Air pollution is Kejriwal’s responsibility. If parliamentarians are supposed to run Delhi then Kejriwal should step down. MPs will run it.”
A man with his face covered looks through a window of a train in New Delhi.
